Affective and Cognitive Reactions to Robot-Initiated Social Control of Health Behaviors

Health-related social control refers to intentional attempts to influence people's health behaviors, often seen in personal relationships. Social robots hold promise in influencing people's health by exerting health-related social control, but it is unclear which social control strategies used by robots are appropriate and potentially effective. This study investigates the effects of positive versus negative, and relationship-oriented versus target-oriented social control strategies from a social robot on people's psychological reactions. In an online video prototype study, participants viewed scenarios of a social robot attempting to change their sedentary behaviors by using different strategies. We found that positive (versus negative) strategies elicited stronger positive affect, enjoyment, and perceived social appropriateness, reduced perceived threats to freedom, and strengthened behavioral intention. Meanwhile, the relationship-oriented (versus target-oriented) strategies elevated people's negative affect, reduced enjoyment and perceived appropriateness, elevated perceived threats to freedom, and weakened behavioral intentions. Given these findings, we give recommendations for designing health influence strategies in social robots.